President George W. Bush: A Success Story

President George W. Bush's eight-year term ends Tuesday, turning the White House keys over to Barack Obama. Before that happens, though, let's take a look back at the accomplishments of the 43rd President, which began even before he took office:

Bush and his attorneys successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to declare him the winner of a disputed presidential election over Al Gore.

He successfully found ways around funding stem-cell research, even though it meant lives could have been saved if he did.

He succeeded in convincing people that climate change is just a fad.

He always listened to the advice of his close companion, Vice President Dick Cheney.

He made no rash decisions when faced with intelligence that said terrorists were about to strike the United States.

He went to war in Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden after said intelligence proved to be correct. Bin Laden is now believed to be alive and living in Pakistan, thus rendering the fight against the Taliban to be pointless.

The President went to war in Iraq because he thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Thousands of American military and civilian casualties later, those WMDs were never found. But Bush did succeed in making sure Saddam was never heard from again.

Bush's unique approach to foreign policy succeeded in alienating traditional allies of the United States.

He succeeded in intimidating Americans through politically-timed terror alerts, eavesdropping on phone calls, and sanctioning mysterious trips to Guantanamo Bay and other places.

Succeeded in winning a second term and ruining the career (and life) of a CIA employee through lies and innuendo.

He succeeded in politicizing the Justice Department, where it's not what you know, its agreeing to a conservative manifesto in order to keep your job.

He succeeded in getting Congress to bend to his will, no matter which party was in charge.

The President succeeded in letting New Orleans twist slowly in the wind after Hurricane Katrina, but reacted quickly when another major storm slammed into his home state of Texas.

He succeeded in surrounding himself with people who'll tell him anything but the truth.

He successfully stood back while the stock market tanked, homes were foreclosed, businesses failed, and the auto and banking industries begged Congress for money.

President Bush succeeded in posting the lowest approval numbers since Harry Truman, thus making whoever won the 2008 election look better by comparison.

This is by no means complete, but it is an impressive resume as the soon-to-be-former President Bush goes back to Texas. Let's see if President Barack Obama can improve on that starting Tuesday.